


Good Intentions

by dracusfyre



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: I promise, Literal Angel Sam Wilson, M/M, MCD-but it doesn't stick, Nice Demon!Tony, Prompt Fill, Supernatural AU - Freeform, kind of like how Dean and Sam have each died like 18 times in Supernatural, winteriron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-03-22 06:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13758159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracusfyre/pseuds/dracusfyre
Summary: The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but the road out is paved with good deeds. For the ITAB Prompt:Bucky is a Hunter who is in a relationship with Tony who is either an Angel or Demon.





	1. Series Premiere

“This is a stupid idea!” Bucky called over his shoulder at Natasha, who was leaning against the hood of the car keeping an eye out for any other vehicles.

“But it will make a funny story later, so quit complaining,” Natasha called back.  Bucky scowled at the small hole he’d already dug and compared it to the size of the shoebox he was trying to bury.  Scowling, he wondered if he could just dump out the contents into the hole.

“’Saw it on the internet’,” he grumbled as he chipped away at the packed dirt with the crowbar from the car and then scooped it out of the hole with his hands. “’I know just the place,’ he says. ‘Could be fun.’ Hey, Tash, if this was your idea how come I’m the one digging the hole?”

“Because you’re the one that said you’d sell your soul for a good lay.”

Bucky wished he was as drunk now as he’d been then.  But despite his complaining, it wasn’t too much longer before he was done, so he stood and brushed the dirt off his hands.  “Ok, now what? Do I gotta say something?”

“A hello would be nice,” a voice purred behind him. Bucky jumped and gave a startled yelp as he turned to see who said that.

Standing in the middle of the intersection was a young man, about Bucky’s age, wearing an Iron Maiden shirt over low-slung jeans and looking unremarkable until you notice that even though the moon was full he didn’t cast a shadow.  When he got closer Bucky could see that his eyes seemed to shine silver, but maybe that was just a trick of the moonlight.  Bucky pulled his eyes away and looked around but the intersection was just as deserted as it had been when they got here; only fields as far as the eye could see, no other cars or vehicles in sight.  “Who the hell are you?”

The man didn’t answer, he just tapped his foot on the pile of loose dirt over the box Bucky buried and raised his eyebrows.  “This is one of the most fucked up summoning spells I’ve ever seen. I mean, the spell asks for the bones of a black cat and you put in a stuffed animal.”

For some reason that offended Bucky’s sensibilities, even if he had just thought the spell was a joke. “Oh, seen a lot, have you? Do you know how hard it is to get those ingredients? Especially on short notice?”

“I know it’s harder than it used to be. But you wanna make a deal with the devil, you should put a little effort into it.  This isn’t eBay.”

Bucky crossed his arms. “Well you’re here, aren’t you?” 

“Only because I heard the words, ‘sell your soul for a good lay’ and I thought to myself, that’s my kind of deal.  Not because of that stupid…I can’t even call it a spell.”

“Hey, fuck you, ok? It’s not like I thought it was _real._ ”

“Well, it is, for certain values of the word, and now I’m here. So about that lay.”  The man started pulling off his shirt as he glanced around at the deserted intersection. “I mean, it’s not the most romantic location, but the moonlight is nice enough.”

Bucky stared at his lean chest, the ropy muscles and smooth curve of his shoulders and biceps before jerking his eyes back up to look the man in the face. “What? No, that was just – never mind.”

The man paused with his hand on the button of his jeans.  “Are you sure?” Bucky started to shake his head then stopped and nodded, feeling his face get hot when a slow smile spread across the man’s face. “Because I’m not the one that summoned a crossroads demon for good sex.”

“You’re not…demons aren’t real,” Bucky said, stubbornly ignoring the blush until he felt the heat fade.  It would help if this guy would put his _damn shirt back on_ because his body was built in all of Bucky’s favorite ways and, well, it _had_ been a while since Bucky got laid.

He jumped when he felt an arm wrap around his shoulders.  The man was suddenly standing next to him, fully dressed.  “You know, it’s probably best that you keep thinking that,” the man said, steering Bucky back to the car where Natasha was sitting on the hood and looking at her phone.  “Red pill, blue pill, you know.”

Bucky looked at the man’s face, so close to his own, the full curve of his bottom lip and the barely-there stubble along his jaw, gaze trailing up to see that the man’s eyes were completely _black_. A black that seemed to absorb the moonlight and not reflect it, as if where his eyes should have been there were only dark pits.  He only realized that he had been walking when he stopped, gaping as the man turned to face him.  The man raised his eyebrow and smiled, and when he blinked the darkness was gone. He gave Bucky a tiny shove back towards Natasha. “Now shoo, and the next time you try summoning a demon, don’t be so half-assed about it, they’re not all as nice as I am.”

Bucky walked back to the car in a daze, trying to convince himself that what he’d seen had been a trick of the light.  He stopped and turned but the man was gone.

Natasha glanced up when she heard his feet on the gravel.  “Done already?” she smirked, sliding off the hood and getting in the car.  “Who were you talking to?”

Bucky stared at Natasha in disbelief.  “What?

“I heard you out there talking to someone. Who called you this time of night?”

“You didn’t-” Bucky stopped when Tasha just looked at him curiously.  “It was Steve. Steve called and wanted to know what in the hell we are doing.”

Hidden from mortal sight, Tony rocked on his heels and watched the pair drive away. He summoned the shoebox with the spell ingredients from the dirt loosely piled over it, pulling out the picture that the human had put inside.  It looked like the kind of photo you would get for a yearbook or a school ID; flipping it over, Tony read the name written on the back. “James Buchannan Barnes,” he said out loud.  “Huh.”  He tucked the photo into his back pocket and kicked the dirt back into the hole at the crossroads before leaving.


	2. Episode 1.02

“You know, I thought I told you to take the blue pill,” Tony commented a few nights later, appearing next to James in the relative isolation of the school library.  He had the satisfaction of making James jerk so hard in surprise that he dropped the book he’d been reading, hidden in his lap from prying eyes.  It hid the carpeted floor of the library with a muffled thud. Tony leaned over to look at the cover. “ _Daemonologie_ ,” he read.  “Book report or just some light reading?”

James snatched it off the floor and went to put it in his backpack, but Tony had already grabbed the bag and was looking through the other books stuffed in there.  “ _The Mythical Creatures Bible,_ ” he read, handing the book back to James who was starting to get red in the face. Tony hid his smile and kept going. _“Malleus Malificarum_ and _A Field Guide To Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits._ Hmm, you know, half of these are full of shit, but I’m not going to tell you which ones.”

“What are you doing here?” He hissed, grabbing all the books from Tony’s hand.

Tony raised his eyebrows and sat on the desk, kicking his heels idly.  “So no questions about how I got here? How I knew where you were?” 

“No.  The fact that you’re here at all means that I’m not crazy and I didn’t hallucinate you the other night.”  James must have seen the librarian giving him an ugly look because he stood, gathering his notebook and pen and cramming everything into his backpack.  Tony followed him outside; the night was cool and pleasant, and far away was the sound of the university’s bell tower ringing out the time.  “So why are you here?”  James as he headed out across the bricked-over plaza in front of the library.

“I had a feeling that you might be poking your nose into stuff that could get you killed, so I came to check on you.”  Tony followed him, hands in his pockets as he took a deep breath of the fresh air, tinged with the smell of fall.

“I’m just doing some research,” James said defensively.

“Yeah. No harm ever came from reading a book, right?” Tony walked fast so he could get ahead of James, turning to walk backwards so he could look James in the face.  “First comes the learning, then comes the looking, then is usually the dying.  There are people who do this for a living, you know.  Let them do their jobs, and you keep studying other stuff. Safe stuff.”

James stopped.  “Do _what_ for a living?”

“Uh…” Tony cursed his big mouth. “Nothing.  Research. You know. Someone’s gotta write these books, right?”

When James narrowed his eyes at Tony, Tony realized he might be dealing with a human of higher than average intelligence.  “Right.  Two of which are _not_ bullshit, which means whoever wrote them had to have firsthand knowledge.  In fact, one of these books had quite a bit of detail on how to kill these creatures…” Bucky dropped his backpack on the pavement and started digging through it.  He came up with the _Mythical Creatures Bible_ , which out of all of them had the most cartoonish cover.  Tony cursed to himself as Bucky opened it up and flipped through the pages at the front of the book.  “Men of Letters Publishing, huh?”

“Never heard of them,” Tony said dismissively, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Uh huh.” James put the book back in his bag and threw it over his shoulder as he started walking again.  “So what do I call you?”

“My name is Tony.”  He followed James as he walked.  The number of people around them was gradually increasing as they were headed towards a more populated part of campus.

“Tony? What kind of demon name is that? Is it short for something unpronounceable?”

Tony laughed. “Only if you consider ‘Anthony’ unpronounceable.  Only the Old Ones have those kind of names, the rest of us were just regular humans who…you know.” Tony shrugged.

“Sold your soul?”

“Not all of us.  I got into hell on a technicality.” At James’ look of curiosity Tony elaborated.  “I was a suicide.  Overdose.”

“Oh.  I’m sorry,” James said, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, forehead creased. “I didn’t-“

Tony smiled wanly and waved off the sympathy. “It’s fine, I don’t really remember much.” They walked in silence for a while before Tony admitted, “I like to think it was an accident, but…” He shrugged again. “So what do I call you?”

“My friends call me Bucky.” He rolled his eyes when Tony made a face. “Yeah, I know. I didn’t pick it, but it’s better than Jimmy.”

“I guess,” Tony said doubtfully.  Just then Bucky’s phone rang and Tony had the privilege of watching his face light up in a smile as he answered.  “Hey, Stevie, what’s up?”

Tony could hear ‘Stevie’ answering on the other line, even though he turned his head away to give Bucky – ugh – a sense of privacy. _“Where are you?”_

“Walking from the library.  I’m on my way.”

_“I’m in the back.”_

“Ok. Hey wait-” Bucky said quickly when Stevie almost hung up. “Mind if I bring somebody?”

Tony turned his head in surprise to find Bucky looking at him questioningly.  After a moment he nodded.  “ _Who?”_ Stevie asked.

“I, um, met him around campus a couple of times and we ran into each other at the library.”

“ _Ok, sure. See you soon_.”

“Stevie, huh?” Tony said when Bucky hung up the phone. “Boyfriend? Little brother? Presumably someone nicknamed by the same horrible people who called you Bucky.”

Bucky laughed. “We gave each other those nicknames.  He’s practically my brother, we were raised together.”  Tony made a thoughtful noise and now they were getting close to the ubiquitous street of bars and restaurants that lined most college campuses, like a moat between the university and the rest of the city.  “Wait,” Bucky said suddenly as they stopped at a light. “Is Steve going to be able to see you? Because that night Natasha couldn’t.”

“Oh, well that’s something I can control.  You’d have been getting a lot more funny looks if other people hadn’t been able to see me this whole time,” Tony pointed out, smiling at Bucky’s chagrin.  The light changed and they walked another block before Bucky gestured at a small set of stairs leading down to a barely lit door, easy to miss with all of the other brightly lit chain restaurants on the street.  A small woodcut sign said _Goodfellas_ over the door with a picture of mug of frothy beer, and a bored looking man the size of Tony and Bucky together was checking IDs with palpable disinterest.

“A dive bar!” Tony said with delight when they went inside.  The inside was just as dim as the outside would suggest; the walls were black from decades of cigarette smoke and all of the wood tables were scarred with gouges and condensation rings. The seats were of red leather held together with duct tape and the floor was sticky.  Tony could smell all of the bad decisions that were going to be made here tonight. 

Bucky led the way through the crowd to the back when someone against the back wall stood slightly and waved.   Bucky waved back and led Tony over. “Tony, Steve. Steve, Tony,” he said as he sat down.  ‘Stevie’ turned out to be a short, skinny blonde with hair that needed cutting, but his blue eyes were sharp and curious as he gave Tony a measuring look, gaze raking him from head to toe.  Tony grinned as Steve then turned to Bucky, the light of mischief already in his eyes. “Don’t even start,” Bucky warned as Steve opened his mouth.

“Oh no, you should start,” Tony said as he sat, elbowing Bucky so hard that he almost shoved him out of his seat.  “What were you going to say?”

“Don’t,” Bucky said again, his cheekbones growing red.

“Do,” Tony said over him, and Steve waved them both into silence.

“I was just going to say that I invited Sam and Natasha,” Steve said mildly, but his eyes promised that Bucky was going to hear it later.  “How convenient that we both have, hmm, _friends_ here tonight.”

“Aww.” Tony elbowed Bucky.  “Are we friends, Bucky? JB? El Buckarino? Buckaroo, old buddy?” Tony’s grin was undimmed by Bucky’s glare.

“Here he is!” Steve stood up and waved again.  Bucky and Tony both turned to look at the new arrival.

“Shit,” Tony blurted, scrambling to his feet so fast that his chair slid backwards with a loud scrape on the tile floor.  When the two turned to stare at him, confused, Tony started babbling. “Um, I’m sorry, I gotta go. I’ll, uh, see you around, yeah?”  Tony was tempted just to disappear but there were way too many people staring so he started shoving his way towards the back exit, pretending he didn’t hear Bucky calling his name. Bucky threw an apologetic look at Steve and followed Tony through the back exit of the bar.

“Tony, stop!” Bucky jogged after him; Tony was surprisingly fast for someone so short.

“Nope!” Tony called out over his shoulder, scanning the street for someplace relatively private to get the hell out of dodge.  A strong hand on his shoulder spun him around.

“What the hell is going on?” Bucky demanded.

 “Uh, that guy back there, Steve’s ‘friend,’ is an angel, Bucky. And I’m a demon _._   Get it? The whole angels hating demons thing is not an exaggeration.  Given half a chance, he’s gonna smite me, so, yeah. I’m out.”

Bucky looked at him incredulously. “What? Sam isn’t an _angel-_ ”

Tony laughed at that, a little hysterical.  “That’s not something you mistake, buddy.   Humans can’t see it, but angels are like…” he gestured widely, “the size of skyscrapers. In order to walk around on earth they have to have a host, which they can use the same way you would use a sock puppet.  And me? No matter what plane you look at, I’m still just a human sized demon.  There’s no contest.  If he puts one finger on me? Poof!”  Tony made an exploding gesture with his hands. “No more Tony.”

Bucky blinked a couple of times, clearly trying to reorganize his world view to accommodate the existence of angels.  “But…they’ve had _sex_!”

“So?” Tony turned and kept walking, still clearly eager to put as much distance between him and Sam as possible. "Angels aren’t the fluffy, do-gooding types you see in movies.  They are warriors of God. Soldiers. Think they don’t come to earth and get curious? Get urges?”

“That is so… _weird._ ”

Tony just shrugged. “More things, heaven and earth, blah blah blah.”

“Do demons?” Bucky blurted, and that made Tony stop in his tracks.  “Never mind. Forget it,” he said when Tony turned around with a grin, brown eyes glinting wickedly.

“Do demons what? Get urges?” He swayed closer as Bucky looked down at his feet, mortified.  “Why you askin’, Bucky? Have _you_ been getting…urges?”

“Forget I said anything,” Bucky said again.  “You should go.”

“If you say so, hot stuff,” Tony drawled, curling his fingers through the belt loops on Bucky’s jeans, tugging him close enough that Bucky could feel Tony’s breath on his skin. “You let me know next time if you're getting any... _urges_ ,” he murmured, his mouth so close to Bucky’s that it made Bucky a little dizzy.  Bucky closed his eyes and felt the moment that Tony disappeared, the gust of displaced air and noiseless sound that meant he was gone. He walked slowly back to the bar, thoughts whirling, and sat back down to see that Natasha had arrived. 

“Hey, Bucky,” Natasha said brightly.  The server came up to take their orders and when he went away, she held up one Bucky’s demonology books from his backpack and said, “New hobby?”


	3. Season 1 Finale

A few weeks later Tony was waiting for Bucky outside his last class for the day when Sam appeared out of nowhere, slamming him against the brick wall of the building and pinning him there with a hand on his throat. On the astral plane Sam’s six wings arced around him, bristling with power and keeping him from escaping.

“What are you doing with James Barnes, demon?”  Sam demand, the hand on his throat getting hot as a warning.

“Nothing!” Tony squeaked, trying to look harmless. “Just…hanging out.”

“I don’t believe you,” Sam said dangerously.  “What sort of deal are you trying to cozen out of him?”

“Nothing, I swear. I just…like being around him.” Tony breathed shallowly, trying not to touch the sharp edges of the angel’s wings.  Sam leaned back, head cocked slightly as he realized Tony was telling the truth.

“Have you told anyone about my presence here?”

Tony’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why would I…Ooohhhh, shit,” Tony breathed, eyes widening as his mind raced. Sam’s eyes narrowed when he realized that Tony had stumbled upon his secret. "You're here for Steve.  _Steve_ is-”  He flinched away as Sam raised a hand, fingers already glowing with power needed to smite Tony into oblivion.

“What are you doing? Get away from him!” Sam stumbled a few steps backward, more out of surprise than anything else, when Bucky came barreling at him, shoving him away from Tony.

“What the hell?  Bucky, what are you doing?” Steve came trotting up as Bucky pulled Tony behind him and out of Sam’s reach.

“I’m ok, Bucky, he didn’t do anything,” Tony said quietly, still edging away from the furious angel and eager to escape. He made a conscious effort to not to look at Steve, aware that any move towards the angel’s charge could make the angel smite him, witnesses or no witnesses.

“What’s going on here?” All heads turned at the brusque voice, and when Tony saw the speaker his stomach sank, right past his feet and all the way back to hell.  On Earth he kept his eyes on the ground and on the astral plane he cowered before Azazel, one of the Old Ones, as he approached. 

“Nothing, sir…I think,” Steve said, still giving them an odd look.  As the human currently possessed by the archdemon came closer, Sam drew himself up and Tony saw his hand twitch to where his angel blade must be hidden.

“Do you want to introduce me to your friends, Mr. Rogers?” Azazel’s voice was smooth and his grin smug, gaze skipping over Tony dismissively to study Sam.

“Sure. Doctor Pierce, this is Sam and Tony.  Tony and Sam, this is Doctor Alexander Pierce, our comparative government professor.”   

“Sam,” Azazel drawled. “I think we’ve met. Pleasure to see you again, Samael.”

“Sam _uel_ ,” the angel corrected, scowling.  On the astral plane he was bristling, wings flared.  Tony kept very still, trying not to attract any attention to himself as a Warrior of Heaven faced off against a Prince of Hell with two (mostly) clueless humans as witness.  The gathering of power in the air as the two readied themselves to fight was making Tony sweat.

“My mistake.  Well, it is a pleasure to meet Mr. Rogers’ friends,” the demon said, putting an avuncular hand on Steve’s shoulder just to watch Sam’s reaction.  “He’s one of my favorite students.  I believe I will be taking a close interest in his career.”

“Thank you, sir,” Steve said absently, watching Sam and clearly fully aware that something was happening here that he didn’t understand.

“I’ll see you boys in class on Monday.” 

“Yes, sir,” they chorused, and there was a moment of quiet as the demon sauntered away, hands in his pockets.

“Ok, now that he’s gone,” Steve said, crossing his arms over his skinny chest and lifting his chin, “what in God’s name was that all about?”

Tony’s eyes met Sam’s, and the way they narrowed made it clear that he thought Azazel’s presence was Tony’s fault.  “That’s not on me,” Tony protested.  “He’s here for the same reason you are. I got caught up in this bullshit by accident.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Tony barked out a laugh that had no humor in it. “Between the two of us, you’re calling _me_ the liar? That’s rich.  Well here’s some truth-telling for you.”  Tony turned to Steve, jabbing his finger angrily towards Sam.  “This guy has been lying to you for the entire time you’ve known him.  He’s not who he says he is; he’s not even _what_ he says he is. You’re an _assignment_ , a _job_. Him and his boss are playing chess with your life.”  Tony looked back at Sam, who had gone pale though his eyes blazed. “Have fun explaining that, you feathered dick.  At least I never lied to _my_ human.”

With that, Tony fled. He jumped to multiple places across the planet before finally stopping at a picturesque fjord in Norway.  Alone, he ran his hands through his hair while he paced, yanking at the strands as he remembered the look in Bucky’s eyes as he shoved Sam away.  He heard his phone chime with messages while he stared out over the mountains and water, the sun rippling on the waves, the plants clinging stubbornly to the rocky cliffs, and tried to figure out what the fuck he was going to do now.

Suddenly Azazel appeared next to him and laid a hand on the back of Tony’s neck, the gesture full of friendly menace.  On the astral plane the archdemon was pinning Tony down like a lion with an unruly cub.  “Hello. I didn’t forget about you – Tony, is it? What a surprise it was to see you there.” The hand on his neck forced Tony’s head up to meet Azazel’s gleaming yellow eyes.  “What’s your interest in those humans, little demon?”

“One of them summoned me at a crossroads, sir, but didn’t complete the deal,” Tony said truthfully.  At this point he was so terrified that he’d come out the other side and was strangely calm.  He’d never been the focus of an archdemon’s attention before, and it was blisteringly obvious that Azazel could and would destroy him at an atomic level if he gave the wrong answer. “Then I discovered the angel, and I was trying to figure out why it was there.”

“Ah,” the archdemon said in amusement. “Finally figured it out, did you?”

“Yes, sir.”  The only thing that could bring an angel out of Heaven - which hadn’t happened for thousands of years - was that Steve was the Michael Sword, the one true vessel for the archangel Michael.  Which meant that Bucky was Lucifer’s vessel, and –  and – Tony forced the rest of that thought away before Azazel sensed it.

Azazel made a thoughtful noise as he looked out over the fjord.  “Stay close to them,” he ordered after a moment.  “As close as you can get without crossing the angel again.  I’ll expect regular reports, understand?  I have plans and I don’t want Samael interfering.”

“Yes, sir,” Tony said again, miserably. The hand on the back of his neck squeezed once and then Azazel was gone again, leaving behind the smell of sulfur and ozone.  For a while he stood there, staring blankly, until his phone started buzzing with an income call. “Yeah?” he said as he answered it without looking, voice remote.

“Tony? Hey.”  There was a moment of quiet until Bucky realized Tony wasn’t going to say anything.  “So, um, could you come back? So we can talk? Sam and Steve have been arguing since you left, and I’m still really confused…you know…about everything.”

Tony was still silent, hearing _“stay close to them”_ ringing in his ears. But then he remembered _“get away from him!”_ and smiling grey eyes and the way Bucky’s face got red when Tony teased him and he realized that he wasn’t going to let Bucky become Lucifer’s vessel.  The thought of his curiosity and kindness, of Bucky himself, being snuffed out like a candle to make room for Lucifer, the cruelty that those hands would commit…Tony cleared his throat.  “Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute. I'll explain everything.”


	4. Season 2 Finale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the MCD shows up, so beware. If you need to skip this chapter, you can either wait for tomorrow and won't miss much plot, or you can read down to the Smooch and then stop.

It was clear to Tony when Azazel made his move.  One day Steve had the sniffles, then a cough became a cold, which became the flu, and finally viral pneumonia sent him to the hospital.   Tonight, like most nights, as Tony approached Steve’s bedside he found Bucky asleep in the chair beside the bed, schoolwork scattered across Steve’s legs. As the two slept, Samael watched over them, wings drooping and tiredness in every line of his body.

“No improvement?” Tony said quietly as the angel glanced at him.  In the past few months they had made an uneasy peace once they had acknowledged that neither of them wanted their human to be caught in the cogs of Heaven and Hell’s machinations.  Despite the shaky truce between them, though, Tony made sure to stay out of easy smiting range.

“No.” It was mostly a rhetorical question; Steve had clearly lost weight and his breath was whistling in his lungs.  Machines beeped quietly and on the other side of the door there was the hushed conversation of nurses and patients. Tony straightened up some of Bucky’s mess and gave in to the urge to brush Bucky’s hair back from his face. 

"This is my fault,” Sam said eventually. “Azazel is mocking me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am the angel of Pestilence,” he said.  “It was my duty to bring the plagues to punish humanity, and then to take them away again.  Now my ward has a disease that I cannot heal, and I must watch the only human I’ve ever cared about die.”  Tony winced because that did sound like something Azazel would do. Steve stirred in the bed, coughing, and then Tony felt and heard the rush of angel wings as Sam fled the room.

“Coward,” Tony muttered. Steve struggled to smother a bout of coughing, but his movements eventually woke Bucky, who gave a jaw cracking yawn.  Tony offered Bucky a small smile as he handed Steve a cup of ice water and the box of tissues.  Since Steve had gone to the hospital after collapsing in the middle of class, Tony had tried to keep them company to keep their spirits up.  But as Steve grew sicker Bucky grew quieter, and now the quality of Bucky’s silences were starting to fill Tony with dread.  Early on, Tony had taken Bucky to the side to remind him that Azazel was behind this, begging him to remember what was at stake and be patient while Sam tried to find a cure. Then, Bucky had nodded earnestly; now, when Steve struggled to sit and needed help to shuffle laboriously to the restroom…Now, Tony was afraid to be alone with Bucky, afraid of what he would ask.

Bucky tried to catch his eye. Tony kept his attention on Steve until he, too, could make his escape.

***

Two days later, Tony felt a tug and followed the pull of a summoning spell to a familiar crossroads. To Tony's dismay Bucky was there, menacingly lit by the reddish light of the moon low on the horizon.  He threw his shovel to the ground when Tony appeared. This time, there was no friend egging him on, only Bucky and his air of cold determination.

“No,” Tony said. 

“Yes.”

“No. You can’t.”

“I can and I will.”

“Please don’t do this,” Tony begged.

Bucky’s jaw was tight. “Make the deal, Tony,” he said, “or I’ll find another demon that will.  My life for Steve’s.”

Tony raked his fingers through his hair and cursed. “We’ve talked about this, Bucky! Hell wants you _bad_ , you’re not going to get a good deal. Sam-”

“Steve doesn’t have any more time to wait,” Bucky said quietly. “Doctors say his systems are starting to shut down.  If you’re not going to do this, send me a demon that will.”

 _Fuck._ Tony’s shoulders slumped.  He reached out and brushed his fingers over Bucky’s hand, and Bucky captured them, squeezing tightly. “Please don't make me do this,” Tony tried one last time, stepping in close to bury his face in Bucky’s neck. Arms wrapped around him and Bucky exhaled, long and low. 

"You don't have to.  But it's going to happen, with or without you."

"Ok." Tony breathed him in for a few moments, closing his eyes to concentrate on the warmth of the body against his own, the muscles moving under his hands, before he stepped back. “Are you ready?”

Bucky swallowed and closed his eyes, bracing himself. “Yeah.”  He jumped a little and made a surprised noise when Tony pressed a kiss to his jaw.  “What-”

“Demon deals are sealed with a kiss, Bucky,” Tony said with a faint smile. “Just go with it.”

“Oh.” Bucky studied him for a moment, then his hands came up to frame Tony’s face, warm and gentle. “Good.  I’m glad I get to do this before I die.” He brushed his lips across Tony’s, lightly, softly, before kissing his temple and the corner of his eyes. Tony licked his lips and Bucky followed the path of his tongue with his own, sliding inside when Tony opened his mouth with a low moan. For long moments Tony’s world narrowed to the hot, wet glide of Bucky’s mouth on his own, until Bucky made a wounded noise in his chest and pulled away. “I’m sorry, I can’t…”

Tony felt cold as Bucky’s hands fell away, but he didn’t try to follow him as Bucky paced away.  “I understand.”  Tony crossed his arms over his chest as the cold started to settle in all the way to his bones, to what was left of his soul.

Bucky nodded and ran his hands over his face. “Now what?”

“I’m sorry, Bucky. It will only hurt for a moment.” Tony closed his eyes so he couldn’t see Bucky’s face, but as he reached out with his power he knew he would never stop hearing the crunch of breaking vertebra and the thump of Bucky’s body falling limply to the dirt.


	5. Season 3 Finale Ep 1

Azazel took gleeful possession of Bucky’s soul as the Reaper brought it down, smiling unpleasantly as Bucky writhed and tried to escape the painful touch of Azazel in his true form.  “Now now,” he said as he tightened his grip.  “You’re here fair and square.  What else did you expect would come from thinking that a demon was your friend?”

Tony didn’t flinch at the reminder of his betrayal. He watched as Azazel pinned Bucky to the floor with one clawed foot; the soul was still in shock from his sudden death, but Bucky was still struggling nonetheless. Tony wondered distantly if he’d been the same when he came to hell, or if he’d been more resigned to his fate.

He must have made some sort of noise because Azazel glanced up at him, as if surprised to see him still there. “What do you want?”

Tony’s eyes flew to the floor.  He honestly didn’t know why he was still there; he just felt a strong reluctance to leave Bucky’s soul. “Sir, I-”

“Oh, I suppose you think you deserve some sort of reward for this.  I wasn’t sure a crossroads demon could deliver, but you did, so I’ll instruct Crowley to grant you something appropriate.” Azazel flapped a ruined remnant of a wing in Tony’s direction dismissively, so Tony backed away with a bow, fists clenched behind his back.

***

Tony waited until Azazel was safely gone before he slipped past the door into Bucky’s cell. “Bucky?” he whispered, and was answered with a low groan. “Hey,” he said softly, putting a hand on Bucky’s shoulder.    

“Tony?” Bucky turned his face towards Tony’s voice, and Tony winced at the damage Azazel had done today.   Turning a soul like Bucky’s into a demon was an ugly, evil process, and Bucky had been fighting Azazel the whole way.  This was his fourteenth furtive visit to Bucky's cell since Bucky died, and each time he seemed a little weaker than the visit before. Souls were resilient, and they stubbornly healed damage until the day they were broken completely, but even with Bucky’s strength it would take a while for him to recover this time.

“Yeah, I’m here.” He put one hand on Bucky’s shoulder and started carding through Bucky’s tangled hair with the other.  “So you would not believe what happened today…”  He started, pitching his voice low and soothing.  It took a few minutes but eventually Bucky relaxed under his hands.  He was halfway through his story when he felt a tremor shiver through the stones of Bucky’s cell. After a moment it did it again, this time strong enough to rattle the tray of Azazel’s tools next to the wall.  The sensation was terrifying; Tony didn’t know what it would take to shake the foundations of Hell itself, but he wasn’t interested in learning, especially if it meant he was caught being somewhere he really shouldn’t be.

“I’m sorry, Bucky,” he murmured, and brushed his lips across Bucky’s forehead. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

“Be careful, Tony.” Bucky's voice followed him to the door.  The floor shook again, throwing Tony against the wall.  In the distance was the furious roar of an archdemon, and Tony thought he could hear the ringing sound of clashing blades.  He hesitated, trying to figure out what to do.  If Hell was under attack, he didn’t want to leave Bucky, but if the angels made it this far Bucky would probably be safer without him.  On the other hand, now might be the _best_ time to try to free Bucky –

Someone came barreling around the far corner of the hall, from the direction of the fighting, and slammed right into Tony, knocking them both to the floor.  “Steve?” Tony said in disbelief.  The last time he’d seen him, even before he’d grown ill, Steve had been pale and thin, held together mostly by determination and attitude.  Tony had no idea how much time had passed on Earth since Bucky died, but Steve had grown at least six inches, shoulders broadening with muscle. He had a knife in each hand, one etched in runes that looked vaguely familiar and the other the unmistakable flat silver of an angel blade.  “What are you-” Steve looked back over his shoulder towards the sound of fighting and Tony finally put it all together. “Is this a jailbreak?” Tony said incredulously.

“Did you think we were just going to leave Bucky in Hell?” Steve said, gesturing for Tony to get up and start moving. “Show me where he is.”

“But-” Tony started to protest that Azazel was probably going to be back any second before he remembered that no, Azazel had been drawn away from Hell for some emergency on Earth. “Oh, you clever bastards,” he breathed in awe. He turned and started sprinting back towards Bucky’s cell. “Is it just you and Sam?”

Steve kept pace with him, something that he wouldn’t have been able to do before.  “Sam found a few friends upstairs who weren’t interested in helping Michael and Lucifer start the apocalypse.  They’re guarding our escape.”

Tony skidded to a stop in front of Bucky’s cell. “It’s not pretty,” he warned. 

Steve set his jaw.  “I know. Sam told me what to expect.”

Tony nodded and opened the door.  “Bucky, it’s me again,” he said, moving into Bucky’s line of sight, hands working quickly on the restraints pinning him to the table.  “Steve’s here,” he added unnecessarily as Steve rushed to Bucky’s side.

“Bucky!” Steve held his hands kind of awkwardly, trying to find a place to touch Bucky where he wouldn’t hurt him. “I thought you were dead.”

“Steve?” Bucky stared at him, dazed, struggling to sit up as Tony freed him.  “I thought you were…smaller.”

Steve put an arm under his and held him up as Bucky half fell, half slid off the table he’d been strapped to. “I think you had something to do with that, jerk.” They helped him out the door just as Sam was coming around the corner, pressed backwards by the demon he was fighting. Tony threw out a hand and tripped the demon just long enough for Sam to stab him through the heart with the angle blade, destroying the demon with a shower of sparks and heat.

“Good, you found him. We need to go.” Sam’s mouth was a thin line as he gestured for Steve to hurry.

“I’ll guard the rear,” Tony said, taking his arm from around Bucky, who muttered a weak protest. “Get him out of here.”

“No, we’re here for you, too,” Steve said over his shoulder. “Come on.”

“What?” Tony said stupidly.  He actually looked around to see if Steve was talking to someone else, and Sam muttered something unflattering before grabbing Tony’s wrist, then hell slipped sideways with a rush of wings.


	6. Season 3 Finale Ep2

When they landed on Earth, it was just Steve and Tony; Sam and Bucky's soul was nowhere to be seen. Steve must have seen Tony looking around for them, because as he made his way towards the road Tony could just barely see through the trees he said, "Sam is going to meet us.  There's a process to bringing a soul out of Hell."  Tony raised his eyebrows as he followed without comment, because to be fair, he had always been under the impression that it was a one way street.  Once they got to the street they saw a woman leaning against a car a few meters away.

"Hey, Steve," the woman said with a small smile, squeezing him on the shoulder as Steve leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

“I recognize you,” Tony said to the woman behind the wheel as he climbed into the back of the car.  “From that first night with Bucky.”

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked when I found out Bucky’s bullshit summoning spell actually worked,” the woman said as Steve climbed into the front seat and she threw the car into drive.  “I’m Natasha, by the way, and I’ve been playing Q to this ragtag band of misfits.  I’m from the Men of Letters.”

“Men of Letters, huh?”  Tony took a minute to digest that.  “You’re the one who gave him the summoning spell?”

Natasha rolled her eyes as the dirt road became a two lane back road and she was able to accelerate.  “I watched him do it and I thought no way in hell it would work.  It _shouldn’t_ have worked.”

“Well, it didn’t really work.  I was just curious.”

Natasha glanced at him in the review mirror, the look in her eyes unreadable. “You were curious?”

Tony shrugged, wondering why she was looking at him like that. “Yeah. Also, have you seen the man?” he said, ignoring the strangled noise Steve made in the front seat. “I may be dead, but I’m not… _dead_ dead _._ ”    

“Alright, well, when I write the official report on this, I’m going to make sure I note that the factor that led to this particular apocalypse being averted was one curious, horny demon,” Natasha said dryly, and turned on the radio. Tony considered asking more about what she meant by that but decided he might not want to think about the answer just yet so he just lay down and closed his eyes, letting the rhythms of the road soothe him into the meditative state that passed for sleep among demons.

 

The movement of the car on gravel as it slowed to a stop woke Tony some time later and he sat up and looked out the window at where Natasha had taken them, pretty damn ready to find out what happened with Bucky and how they planned to protect him from Azazel.  Protect all of them from Azazel, really, because when he saw that his precious had been stolen he was going to be one angry archdemon. “So, not to be that guy or anything, but why am I here?” Tony said as they climbed out of the car. “Wherever here is?”  He craned his neck up at the blocky, industrial building. It looked like an old power station, with two chimneys looming into the grey sky and the stained exterior with its barred, prison-looking windows.

“This is the Men of Letters headquarters for the Midwestern states,” Natasha explained as they came around to the far side of the building, where a couple of steps led down to a wide metal door.  “And one reason why you are here is because Steve refused to leave you behind.” She gave him a look as she approached the keypad set into the door, and Tony backed up to give her some privacy.

“But I wasn’t the one being held against my will,” Tony pointed out.

“Well, there were a couple of reasons why I insisted on it,” Steve said as Natasha swung the heavy metal door open to reveal a small elevator.  He gestured for Tony to step inside and followed him.  Natasha closed the old fashioned metal door and the grating behind it and pushed a button, and the elevator started to move with surprising silence, given its age.  “Some of those reasons had to do with Bucky.  We knew that he made a deal with you, because he left us a note.”  The look on Steve’s face said that he was going to have some Words with Bucky about whatever was in that note.  The elevator came to a stop, and when Natasha opened the grating again Tony found himself unable to leave.

“Devil’s trap?” Tony asked, not sure why he was surprised.

"The other reason is that I want to know just how much you had to do with Azazel's plot," Steve said, voice hard.  He rested a hand on the demon-killing knife strapped to his thigh.  

"So keeping your potential enemy close, then?"

“Yeah.  Just while we talk to Bucky and figure everything out," Natasha said and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her coat pocket. As they dangled from her finger, Tony could see the runes etched on them. "You understand.”

“Yeah, fine,” Tony said with resignation and held out his hands for her to put them on his wrists. “I mean, you pretty much burned my bridges back in Hell by bringing me out, so. I hope you’re ok with me hanging out here until infinity.” 

They led Tony down a wrought iron spiral staircase to hang out in the library while they had their powwow, and Tony happily wandered through the books lining the walls.  They had one whole bookshelf devoted to the engineering principles of magical inventions so Tony sat down on floor and forgot himself until he heard someone say his name.“Over here,” he called out absently, and looked up to see Bucky.  Suddenly he was glad he was already sitting down because the overwhelming wave of relief made him sag against the wall. Bucky looked _great._   There was no angel superimposed over his form, which is what Tony'd been more than half afraid of, nor was there any sign of the time he spent in Hell. It was as if the past few months had never happened. "Hey, Bucky," Tony managed. "What's up?"

"Hey, Tony," Bucky said, running a hand over the back of his neck as he took a few hesitant steps closer.  When he saw the cuffs on Tony's wrists he made a face and knelt down at Tony's side.  "I'm so sorry, Tony, this is all my fault.  Are you ok?" 

Tony shrugged, still running his eyes over the miracle that was Bucky alive and well.  "It's fine, no big deal.  How are you?"

"Um..." Bucky sat next to him on the floor and gestured towards the rest of the bunker.  "I feel like there's a lot of catching up to do? But otherwise, I feel great."  He smiled crookedly.  "From what I understand, I'm a brand new man."

"Yeah? I don't know, they haven't told me much.  I think they're still worried that I'm playing for the other team," he said, holding up his wrists. 

"Well, about that." Bucky said slowly, and he leaned over until their shoulders were brushing.  He ran the back of his fingers shyly across the back of Tony's hand.  "That's another thing they wanted me to talk to you about."  When Tony met his eyes questioningly he said, "how would you like another chance at being human?"

 ***

Had Tony known what the ritual was going to be like, he probably would have turned it down and just lived in the Men of Letters bunker for eternity.  If he'd ever felt this level of pain he had blacked it out; each injection of consecrated blood burned like holy water, like acid, through his veins and down to the very core of him.  By the third dose, he wasn’t ashamed to say that he begged for them to stop; by the fifth, Bucky’s resolve was gone, and Natasha had been forced to put him in a wrist lock and march him out the door.  She watched him, her brown eyes sympathetic, as he burned and sweated and cursed through the sixth dose, and after that the pain seemed to ebb.  By the last one, he barely felt the sting of the needle, he was so exhausted; he heard someone murmuring and felt the ropes around his wrists and ankles loosening and that was the last thing he knew before he gratefully passed out.

When he came to, gingerly testing his limbs for any searing pain, Bucky looked up from his book.  “Hey, Tony.  How are you feeling?”

Tony took a deep breath, feeling his lungs expand and his heart pump, his stomach growl and his head ache.  Things he hadn't felt in ages.

It was amazing.  He turned his head and smiled at Bucky.  “Hungry. Thirsty.”  

"C'mon," Bucky said and stood, holding his hand out to Tony.  "Let's take care of that and see what other human things you feel up to doing."

"Sounds good," Tony said as he let Bucky pull him to his feet.  "I mean, now that I've got one again, I'd totally sell my soul for a sandwich and a good lay, in that order."


End file.
